This post is linked to on my blogger: http://hyper24x7.blogspot.com/2010/02/pandorum-review.html
Pandorum Movie Site
Pandorum Movie Trailer
Rotten Tomatoes Review
Pandorum IMDB page
I missed this in the theaters despite wanting to watch it (my money went to the Avatar premiere instead) so I was happy when this movie recently released to DVD and Bluray. Normally I shy away from anything labeled sci-fi horror, in the back of my mind the phrase “In space no one can hear you scream” tends to lead me to believe that all space movies + horror = cliché. However in the past I have been persuaded to watch the competition, for comparisons sake: Alien(s), Event Horizon, Sunshine, Deadspace, etc. and in fact enjoyed myself despite having the overwhelming urge to do something else for 59 seconds out of every 60 for the first 12.5 minutes or so. This movie fits into that niche / genre so I gave it a shot, resisting all my hyperanxiety to log onto MW2 and reach out and pwn someone, anyone. In fact…
Inventory:
Star power: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster
Hot / Attractive Females: Antje Traue
Themes: mental illness in the form of madness, survival, amnesia
Quirky bits: dark movie, lots of running / screaming noises, futuristic gadgets are hand-powered.
Short plot summary: World population numbers in the high billions in the future, they build a space ark and send it on its way to the only habitable / earth like planet discovered. The crew rotates in / out of cryogenic sleep in shifts to pilot the ship to its destination. Main characters wake up to find the ship in disarray / darkness and quickly discover a.) monsters running around the ship b.) memory loss and c.) mention of a mental condition called Pandorum, the “I’ve been out in space too long” loss of sanity that all space movies have. Hero of story decides to save the day and fix the reactor which is on the other side of the ship, along the way faces monsters, recovers memory, picks up 2 party members: female lead actress and some guy who doesn’t speak English. The three must fight their way through the ship, find out what happened and repair it. There is a thrilling conclusion, plot twist and stunning reveal, the end and roll credits.
Spoiler alert: next section I will cover the movie in more detail along with the ending, etc.
Review: This movie doesn’t do that much that is new to this type of movie, although there are unique parts to it. The movie is dark, both visually and pretty bleak on the outlook. There is a section on how the Earth’s resources were scarce and the world population reached in excess of 42 billion, prompting the space ark journey. This isn’t too new either, along with monsters popping out in the dark with loud screams on a seemingly advanced space ship in disrepair. Supposedly there were 60k people on board between sleeping and crew, I was trying to do some rough math and figure out if really you could get horrifically mutated human cannibals enough food to reproduce and not starve to reach any type of large numbers as seen in the film. However in the time frame of the movie but some of the details came up sketchy throughout and I had to juggle suspension of disbelief with the observation of horror movie predictability. There were a few parts where someone is quietly looking around a corner and then something jumps out, scares you and then its more chasing or running or “I can’t believe” or “I can’t remember” type dialogue. The ending is a twist but its not so dramatic that I didn’t see it coming or get a few hints. Still I felt that the title “pandorum” and how the characters put the details together worked despite that it was straight forward. Everything fits into a nice compact package and things resolve themselves. There is no evil for the sake of being evil and despite it being a short movie there is a bit of character development. This is all par for the course, given that we aren’t comparing this movie to a drama or a comedy.
Closing: The one thing that really kept me into this movie was the characters amnesia, the casts portrayal of fear seemed convincing and I sincerely wanted to see the movie through to the conclusion enough so that my hyper-ADD-gamer-techie instincts could be curbed long enough to see it to the thrilling conclusion and in the end I felt rewarded / satisfied.
And the Rate-Down*:
Will you waste your time watching this movie: Not unless you don’t like the genre. It’s decently creepy / dark, under 2 hours and has a few new bits to spice it up. Everything is high quality and nothing looks cheap or cheesy.
A to F scale: C+, not super original, not super scary or edgy, no really freaky stuff, just standard for the genre, not saying its bad not saying its super good.
Would I watch this movie again: Yes. Meaning most movies aren’t this good, ever, but this one intrigued me.
RePlay Value**: Sunshine vs. Pandorum: Sunshine. Aliens vs. Pandorum: Aliens. Event Horizon vs. Pandorum: Pandorum
Recommended format: avi /divx file or blu ray 5.1 surround sound/ THX. Crisp visuals and random screaming monsters, EEP!
Would I buy it: Actually yes. It’s cool enough to own. I feel like watching it again.
* skip to the Rate-down if you want the skinny w/o the blah-blah-blah, etc etc.
** would watch again on a home movie night given choice of other movies in same genre